Saturday 7 March 2015

Spring is sprung....

I do love it when I go outside and sniff the air like a gun dog and decide that Spring is sprung.
The daffodils are poking their little yellow snouts through the Well Creek banks where the Snowdrops are already bravely waving, the sun is warm, but for the North Westerly and the dogs are running around like headless chickens for no obvious reason at all.

Over the shed, the roof is warming a little, enough to get in there for a tidy up.  That, I've done today and yesterday and made a lot of new space.  So much so, that I fixed the bandsaw with a wee bit of molybdenum grease on the shaft.  Cut some blocks of wood and glued'n'screwed them to the jig in which I will make the new scuttle hoop for the Cambridge Special.  Whether I have enough 1/16th" ply to cut into strips, remains to be seen, but it's easily available, if not.  The original hoop was steam bent ash, but it's been eaten by insects and the corners have "relaxed" somewhat.  Fortunately I have the repaired and largely unmolested aluminium double bubble scuttle as a guide, so drew round that. Blocks rounded off, glued'n'screwed in the corners and on the slight top curve, ready for the strips. Tomorrow in even better promised weather, we'll go hunting for some more quick clamps at the Sunday Market.  You can't have too many when laminating.  To be honest, I can't even see what this component does, that a sheet of ply couldn't, but I have all the original frame for this body and the Cambridge IS an original period correct body, so I need to replicate the frame exactly.  I have all the original iron fixings and frame strengtheners too, so my path is clear.
I also have a steel bulkhead and floor, but they come from a short wheelbase version, which, since it fits a tapered chassis frame is by definition, slightly narrower, but has so many nice bits, that I will simply cut and widen it, to fit inside the scuttle hoop I've been concerned with today.  I rarely waste anything!

Here's my Cambridge body parts:-
You can see where the bulkhead is narrow and the hoop thing is that bit, just below the double scuttle.

Here are the steel parts, cleaned up a treat and sprayed black over self-etch primer.


And here's a friend's Cambridge frame and interior skin. The interior on his is only 3mm ply, but glued and pinned to the frame it is remarkably strong.
Guess where the above "X" frames go....
Note the dreaded hoop at the scuttle position. 

You see what the Spring can do?  It gets a chap all fired up to build his car.



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